An inventory of the farmer advisory services using ICT

[Francois Stepman]

Dear all,

 

We would like to share with you the final report of the inventory on innovative farmer advisory services or systems, currently in design, in existence or recently completed in Africa. The discussions started with this RAILS dgroup but has expanded through various consultations with relevant service providers or organizations.

 

Entries include projects using ICT solutions or implementing ICT-based activities, institutions/groups providing services using ICTs as well as ICT solutions software providers, both at the national and regional level. While many of the entries are projects with a definitive beginning and end date providing one or two services, others are national or regional information systems providing many agricultural services using ICTs.

 

The compilation of this inventory involved participation from many individuals/organizations. FARA would like to acknowledge the input from the RAILS e-discussion groups [Regional Agricultural Information and Learning Systems] and the Knowledge Management for Development [KM4Dev] e-discussion group who alerted us to projects that could be used in the inventory.

 

FARA attempted to contact each organization to receive the most up to date information on the project. We are grateful to every organization that responded and provided current information on the status of their project. Invaluable contributions came from the International Institute for Communications and Development (IICD) and The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development (CTA) who provided information about the many ICT projects they are involved in. Special thanks to the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), who are working on a study entitled, ICTs and small-scale agriculture in Africa: a scoping study and were able to provide a lot of valuable information about a number of ICT projects in Africa and shared their database with FARA.  

 

Here is the link: http://www.fara-africa.org/media/uploads/File/NSF2/RAILS/Innovative_Farmer_Advisory_Systems.pdf

 

 

Maybe it can give us energy to become more practical on the organization of the M4Agric Conference in 2009? [mail of Allison Hewlitt of 2 months ago].

 

 

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From: mobiles-in-...@googlegroups.com [mailto:mobiles-in-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Allison Hewlitt
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 2:51 PM
To: mobiles-in-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: [mobiles in agriculture] Fwd: M4Agric Conference - Notes from our discussion.

 

Hi All

 

As Mark mentioned, we sat down post-MobileActive08 and brainstormed on a proposed gathering around MIS systems in agriculture. 

 

I took some notes during the conversation which I am sharing with you below.  Hopefully, they will give you a better sense of what was discussed. As always, I would be interested in your reactions and/or any feedback that you would like to share.

 

Best

Allison

 

 

What is the felt need for this event?

- need to better understand how ICT deployment programs and approaches implemented in the agriculture sector are making a difference (what's working and what's not working so well)

- technologies exist that can be used to improve ag sector: what are they? how are they being used? to what level of success? how can they be improved? etc.

 

What do you expect this process to become? A place where...

- practitioners can find out what's working and what hasn't worked so well

- technologists can get input into their designs

- people can test drive technologies

- people working in the area can meet and network

- projects can find potential support 

 

What is it at the core that is being offered to those invited to take part?

- Presentations

- Workshops

- Networking 

- Technologies

- Food(?)

 

Who is the core audience? 

- Practitioners: People working within agriculture communities  implementing technology solutions

 

Who is secondary?

- Researchers

- Private Sector (Agro Trrading Enterprises, Seed and Fertiliser Companies)

- Donors

- Government

- Deploying Agencies 

- Technologist who are developing solutions to be deployed

 

How is the process seen to unfold? In other words, what is the overall direction that is envisioned?

- Similar format to MobileActive08

- SIMplaces and SIMlabs

- Possible Themes: M&E, Technologies (products and applications), Market Segmentation